This invention relates to hoists and lifts for raising a motor vehicle above the floor of a workplace, and is more particularly concerned with mobile lift and transport devices for a transferring a vehicle from a primary lift to another location. The invention is more particularly concerned with an arrangement in which the primary lift employs modular removable vehicle lift pads that are positioned in the lift arms of the primary lift and which a mobile lift and transport caddy can accept to lift the vehicle lift pads and the vehicle off the primary lift to free the primary lift for other work.
Automotive repair shops and automotive body shops employ lifts or hoists to raise the vehicle above the workplace floor for purposes of allowing the workers access to the lower portions of a vehicle or to relieve weight from the vehicle suspension to permit repairs to wheels, brakes, etc. It frequently occurs that an automotive repair is only partly completed when the work need to be interrupted, e.g., to await arrival of a replacement part. When that happens the lift or hoist can be tied up and idled, and not be available for repairs or maintenance to another vehicle. However, the partly-repaired vehicle cannot simply be lowered from the lift and moved on its own wheels, especially if it is missing some portion of its suspension.
Accordingly, there has been a need to provide an auxiliary lift or caddy to remove the partly-repaired vehicle from the primary lift and permit that primary lift to be available for repair of another vehicle. A related need is for the auxiliary lift or caddy to be able to move the first vehicle back to the primary lift so that repairs or maintenance on it can be continued.
Currently there are motor-driven wheeled dollies that can support a single wheel of a vehicle while the vehicle is on the lift, but cannot remove the vehicle from the lift or transport the partly-repaired vehicle. An example of such a dolly is described in Roberts Publ. No. US 2009/0136329. Vehicle-lifting jacks also exist, capable of supporting points on the frame of a vehicle and lifting it so it can be transported, but these do not lift a vehicle from a primary lift or hoist. An example of such an arrangement is described in William Publ. No. US 2010/0284772.
No arrangements are currently available that are suited for lifting a vehicle off a fixed, primary lift or hoist, and transporting the vehicle out of a service bay.